(or Acres) is unknown. A part of the old burial-ground still remains in Nicholas Lane.

Nicholas (St.) Cold Abbey, OLD FISH STREET, now KNIGHTRIDER STREET, corner of Fish Street Hill, a church in the ward of Queenhithe, destroyed in the Great Fire, rebuilt from the designs of Sir C. Wren, and completed in 1677. It was the first church built after the Fire. It is a plain building of brick and stone, the angles rusticated, with, at the west end, a square tower and lead-covered spire of peculiar rather than graceful form, but affording a picturesque variety in the general view of City spires. The interior is 63 feet long, 43 wide, and 36 high, and has, like most of Wren's churches, some effective carving. The cost was £5500.

St. Nicholas Cold Abbey hath been called of many Golden Abbey, of some Gold Abbey, or Cold Bey, and so hath the most ancient writings, as standing in a cold place, as Cold harbour and such like.-Stow, p. 132.

The advowson of this living belonged to the Hacker family, and passed to the Crown on the execution and attainder of Colonel Francis Hacker, to whom the warrant for the execution of Charles I. was addressed, and who commanded the guard before Whitehall when the sentence was carried out. It now serves as well for St. Nicholas Olave, St. Mary Mounthaw, and St. Mary Somerset, the two latter having been united with it by an Order in Council, November 1866.

Nicholas (St.) Olave, BREAD STREET HILL, a church in the ward of Queenhithe, destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt. The old burying-ground is still to be seen on the west side of Bread Street Hill. The church of the parish is St. Nicholas Cold Abbey.

Nicholas (St.) Shambles, a church in or near NEWgate Street, in the ward of Farringdon Within, pulled down at the Reformation, when the church of the Grey Friars' Monastery was called Christ Church, and made to answer the purposes of the church of St. Nicholas Shambles. It derives its name of Shambles from the Shambles or Butchery in which it was situated. [See Butcher Hall Lane.]

In the 11th Richard II., 1588, William Wettone, Alderman of the Ward of Dowgate, on Saturday the eve of Pentecost, went to the Shambles of St. Nicholas, and seeing some pieces of meat lying for sale on the stall of Richard Bole, butcher, asked the price, and being told "four shillings" said it was too dear. "I do surely believe that the meat is too dear for thee," said the butcher, "who I suppose never bought so much meat as that for thy own use;" and then noticing that the Alderman had on an Alderman's hood, he added some coarse words derogatory to the whole Aldermanie. For these words he was summoned before the Mayor and committed to Newgate till the Mayor and Alderman should have taken counsel as to the punishment meet for such misconduct. Eventually he was sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment in Newgate and "on his leaving prison, with his head uncovered, and bare legs and feet, he should carry in his hand a wax torch, weighing one pound, and lighted, from Newgate through the shambles aforesaid, and so straight through Cheap, as far as St. Lawrence Lane, and through that lane to the Chapel of the Guild Hall, and there make an offering of the same." The imprisonment was

remitted at the request of the Archbishop of Armagh, and "the entreaty of the reputable men of the said trade of butchers."1

Butchers at the shambles no doubt used ample license of language in those as in later days, but it was no light matter then to speak disrespectfully to or of an alderman. Richard Bole and his reputable brethren of the trade of butchers we may hope laid the lesson to heart.

The Act of 4 Henry VII., c. 3 (1488), after reciting a petition of the parishioners of St. Faith's and St. Gregory's complaining that great concourse of people at St. Paul's were annoyed, etc., "by the slaughter of beasts, and scalding of swine in the butchery of St. Nicholas Shambles, which corruption and foul ordure compasseth two parts of the Palace, where the Kyng was wont to abide when he came to the Cathedral, to the 'jeopardous abydynge of his most royal persoun,' and to his great annoyance, enacted certain penalties against any butcher or his servant slaying beasts there."

First I was sent to the Marshalsey by Doctor Story, and was carried to his house besides S. Nicholas Shambles.-Fox, Martyrology, ed. 1597, p. 1805.

Marshall. What made you abroad?

Wood. The Bishop of Chichester sent for me to talke with me at home, at his house beside S. Nicholas Shambles.-Ibid., p. 1808.

Nicholas Lane, LOMBARD STREET to CANNON STREET, Crossing King William Street, was so called from the church of St. Nicholas Acon, destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt: a portion of the churchyard, with a few green trees in it, remains on the west side of the lane, and is a pleasant relief to the eye. The emblem of St. Nicholas (the patron saint of citizens, merchants and mariners) is three purses of gold, or three golden balls; hence the arms of the Lombard merchants who settled in Lombard Street (now represented by the London bankers), and the three golden balls of the pawnbrokers of the present day. Several costly blocks of offices have been erected here within the last few years. No. 35, Lombard Street end, is the Agra Bank; No. 37 the National Bank of Scotland. In June 1850 the workmen, excavating in the centre of the lane for a sewer, came upon a large slab of stone with an inscription in good preservation

NVMC [or O]. ... PROV . . BRITA.

... ·

It was believed that other stones might have been found, but the workmen were not allowed to diverge to the right or the left, "though a gentleman offered to pay any expense incurred by the research." 2

Nightingale Lane, EAST SMITHFIELD, separates St. Katherine's Docks from the London Docks, and derives its name from the men of the Cnihten Guild [Knights' Guild], and was originally Cnihten Guild Lane. [See Portsoken Ward.]

Noble Street, CHEAPSIDE, from FALCON SQUARE to GRESHAM STREET; "pretty long," says Stow, "and indifferently well inhabited ; 2 Gentleman's Magazine, July 1850, p. 114.

1 Riley, Memorials, p. 502.

the end next to Foster Lane being esteemed the best."1 Near the north-east end of this street, over against the City Wall, stood Bacon House, "of old time called Shelly House, as belonging to the Shellies; for Sir Thomas Shelley, Knt., was owner thereof in the 1st of Henry IV.,—but now called Bacon House, because the same was new builded by Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal" 2 On the east side of Noble Street is the Coach and Harness Makers' Hall. The street is now largely tenanted by silk merchants, Manchester warehousemen, and similar traders.

Norfolk House, in the south-east corner of ST. JAMES'S SQUARE, the town residence of the Dukes of Norfolk from 1684 to the present time. King George III. was born in this house, May 24, 1738 (O.S.), and baptized in it on June 21 following. His father, Frederick, Prince of Wales, removed from hence to Leicester House, in Leicester Fields. According to Lord Marchmont, Sir Robert Walpole at this time used to talk of the Two Pretenders,—the one at Rome, and the other at Norfolk House!

Oh to what Court will he now go,

To which will he repair?

For he is ill at St. James's House,

And much worse in the Square.

Sir C. H. Williams, On Bubb Dodington, Argyle Decampment,

June 1740 (Works, vol. i. p. 22).

The present Norfolk House, which stands in front of the old house, was built 1742-1756 from the design of Matthew Brettingham, architect, and the portico added in 1842 by R. Abraham.

Norfolk Row, LAMBETH, nearly opposite St. Mary's Church, derives its name from Norfolk House, the London residence of the Howards, Dukes of Norfolk, from an early period to the time of Queen Elizabeth. It was alienated by the family in Elizabeth's reign, and purchased not long after for the wife of Archbishop Parker.

Norfolk Street, MIDDLESEX HOSPITAL, the continuation northwards of Newman Street. The site was entirely unbuilt on in 1774. [See Newman Street.] Charles Dickens's earliest London recollection was that of his father living in lodgings in this street, when he was a child of three years old.3 The name was changed to Cleveland Street in 1867.

Norfolk Street, PARK LANE, originally called New Norfolk Street. Cowper's Lady Hesketh was living at No. 28 in 1792. Sir James Mackintosh on his return from India had a house in this street. He describes his being in the parlour when Josiah Wedgwood came to tell him of Perceval's murder, just as he was sending a letter to him declining his offer of a seat in Parliament. Lord Overstone lived at No. 22, and had there his fine collection of pictures.

1 Stow, B. iii. p. 121.

2 Ibid., B. iii. p. 95; Maitland, p. 482. 3 Forster, Life of Dickens, p. 3.

Norfolk Street, STRAND, to the VICTORIA EMBANKMENT, was built (circ. 1682) on part of old Arundel House, and so called after Henry Howard, sixth Duke of Norfolk (d. 1684). Eminent Inhabitants.— Peter the Great.

On Monday night the Czar of Muscovy arrived from Holland, and went directly to the house prepared for him in Norfolk Street near the water side.-The Postman for January 13, 1698.

William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania.

The last house at the south-west corner of the street was formerly the habitation of the famous William Penn the Quaker, of whom it is well known that his circumstances at a certain period of his life were so involved that it was not safe for him to go abroad. He chose the house, as one from whence he might, upon occasion, slip out by water. In the entrance to it he had a peeping hole, through which he could see any person that came to him. One of these who had' sent in his name, having been made to wait more than a reasonable time, knocked for the servant, whom he asked, "Will not thy master see me?" "Friend," answered the servant, "he has seen thee, but he does not like thee." The fact was, that Penn had, from his station, taken a view of him, and found him to be a creditor.Hawkins's Life of Johnson, p. 208.

William Mountfort, the actor (killed by Lord Mohun), on the east side, about two doors beyond Howard Street. William Shippen, M.P., Downright Shippen," the only member of Parliament of whom Sir Robert Walpole "would say he was not corruptible." His house was about half-way down on the east side.1 Dr. Birch (d. 1766), to whose industry English history owes so much of its accuracy, in Penn's house, the last on the south-west side. His Sunday Evening Conversations were attended by men of the first eminence for learning and intelligence. Spranger Barry, the actor, about 1772. Mortimer, the painter, affectedly called the English Salvator Rosa. Samuel Ireland, the father of William Henry Ireland, in No. 8; and here, on December 24, 1795, the Shakespeare papers were shown to George Chalmers, and other misguided believers in the now well-known "Ireland forgeries." Dr. Brocklesby, the friend of Burke, and-in spite of his being a member of the Constitutional Club and an ally of WilkesJohnson. No. 21 was Albany Wallis's, the friend and executor of David Garrick. No. 42 was the last London lodging of S. T. Coleridge, he leaving this house for Mr. Gillman's at Highgate. No. 1 Henry Thomas Buckle commenced his literary career.

At

Of course Mrs. Lirriper lived on the east side of the street (how did you know it?) but not so far down as you suppose. On the northern side of Howard Street. -Dickens.

Sir Roger de Coverley, when in town, put up in Norfolk Street, 2 but his usual town residence was Soho Square. The houses are now for the most part occupied as private hotels and lodging-houses.

Normal School of Science, SOUTH KENSINGTON, "an institution to supply systematic instruction in the various branches of physical 2 Spectator, Nos.

1 Rate-books of St. Clement's Danes.

3 Ibid., No. 2.

329

and 335.

Science to students of all classes," which was opened in October 1881. The Royal School of Mines is affiliated to the Normal School, and students entering for the Associateship of the School of Mines obtain their general scientific training in the Normal School. The Normal School and Royal School of Mines are governed by a council consisting of the professors and some of the lecturers, with the Dean as chairman and a Registrar in charge of the administration. The subjects taught in the school are-Mechanics and Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geology and Mineralogy, Agriculture, Metallurgy and Assaying, Mining, Elements of Astronomical Physics, Practical Geometry, Mechanical and Freehand Drawing. Further information connected with the school may be obtained from the Annual Directory of the Department of Science and Art.

North's Court, ST. JOHN'S COURT, SMITHFIELD, was so called after John North (uncle of Lord Keeper Guildford and Sir Dudley North), who derived the property from his first wife. Roger North describes it as "a fair court, making three sides of a square."

Northampton House, STRAND. [See Northumberland House.] Northampton Square, CLERKENWELL, derives its name from Northampton House, the former London residence of the noble family of Spencer-Compton, Marquises of Northampton. The square occupies the garden of Northampton House. The present marquis is Lord of the Manor, and an extensive landowner in the parish of Clerkenwell. In this square, Nos. 35 and 36, is the house of the British Horological Institute, established for the improvement of the watch and clock making business, and the technical training of the young workmen. A neat building has been erected for the purposes of the Institute, containing a lecture hall, class-rooms, and various offices. Northampton Square is in the heart of the Clerkenwell watchmaking trade.

Northumberland Alley, FENCHURCH STREET, is on the south side of Fenchurch Street, leading into Crutched Friars. The City Improvement Act of 1760 directs that a passage 25 feet wide be made through Northumberland Alley into Crutched Friars.

This Northumberland House, in the parish of St. Katherine Colman [from which the alley derives its name], belonged to Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland in the 33rd of Henry VI., but of late being left by the Earls, the gardens thereof were made into bowling alleys, and other parts into dicing houses, common to all comers for their money there to bowl and hazard; but now of late so many bowling alleys, and other houses for unlawful gaming, hath been raised in other parts of the city and suburbs, that this their ancient and only patron of misrule is left and forsaken of her gamesters, and therefore turned into a number of great rents, small cottages for strangers and others.-Stow, p. 56.

Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland (d. 1632), was living, in 1612, in the Blackfriars, in a house described in a conveyance from Henry Walker to William Shakspeare as "a capital messuage which sometyme was in the tenure of William Blackwell, Esquire, deceased, and since that in the tenure or occupacion of the Right Honourable Henry